Marked for Marco Melchionda
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcione Milano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Alcione Milano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgio Galli is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings24 Apr 2028
Filippo Pirola was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad24 Apr 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrea Invernizzi, and the manager let it.
Match22 Apr 2028
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Karst de Leeuw has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Alcione Milano will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces26 Apr 2027
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 27 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcione Milano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match24 Apr 2027
1‑2 to Virtus Verona, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad26 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Simone Palombi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Marked 8.16 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Alcione Milano know it.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Kevin Bright falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch26 Apr 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Alcione Milano, and 7 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Valentino Costantini recited it perfectly.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexander Zenti is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Matteo Marotta falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad5 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Marco Ballabio
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match3 Apr 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Shots: 10, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces29 Mar 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 27 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Simone Giorgeschi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match27 Mar 2027
0‑2 to Novara, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Mar 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Alcione Milano, and 5 appearances in 28 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The plan did not have a place for Mattia Muroni
Nobody at Alcione Milano is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Squad29 Mar 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
5.35. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Alcione Milano may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Simone Giorgeschi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match27 Feb 2027
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Simone Palombi had Alcione Milano level again within 2 minutes, and Trento never got to play with a lead at all.
Loan watch1 Mar 2027
“I watch every Alcione Milano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Giana Erminio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Match27 Feb 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings1 Mar 2027
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Alcione Milano lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
A fracture rules Filippo Gallazzi out for 47 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Alcione Milano will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.30, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Simone Giorgeschi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filippo Pirola, and the manager let it.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomy Cadet and Alcione Milano agree another 3 years.
Loan watch1 Feb 2027
“I watch every Alcione Milano game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Giana Erminio runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market1 Feb 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Federico Agazzi
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Aaron Seydel was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Loan watch4 Jan 2027
“I did not go to Giana Erminio to sit and watch. I want to come back to Alcione Milano and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
Squad4 Jan 2027
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Dec 2026
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Alcione Milano are no longer polite ones.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
An order from above at Alcione Milano: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Kemal Ademi in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Alcione Milano this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Luca Zamparo gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Alcione Milano training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kevin Bright is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Nov 2026
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Nov 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Giana Erminio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Matteo Marotta falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Giana Erminio are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The terraces16 Nov 2026
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Giana Erminio's wait for a win
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Giana Erminio has to find a result from somewhere.
Match9 Nov 2026
Every point is an argument now for Giana Erminio
Position 19 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Matteo Marotta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nicolas Previtali, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Giana Erminio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrea Piazza is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Market9 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Giana Erminio know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.